1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to managing addresses, and more particularly, to managing logical addresses in order to support a greater number of logical addresses of connected devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a video system connected according to a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) consumer electronics control (CEC) specification. The video system of FIG. 1 is constituted by connecting a digital television (DTV) 10 to digital versatile disc (DVD) players 20-1 to 20-4 according to the HDMI CEC specification.
Not only video signals but also control signals are transceived between the DTV 10 and the DVD players 20-1 to 20-4. Accordingly, the DTV 10 and the DVD players 20-1 to 20-4 need to have unique logical addresses.
However, only a limited number of logical addresses are provided on the HDMI CEC specification. Additionally, logical addresses are pre-allocated according to the type of device.
FIG. 2 shows logical addresses according to the HDMI CEC specification. In other words, each unique logical address is allocated to each source according to the type of source.
Referring to FIG. 2, if the DVD players are playback devices, logical addresses “4”, “8” and “11” are sequentially allocated to the DVD players.
In other words, if the DVD players of FIG. 1 are sequentially connected, logical addresses “4”, “8” and “11” may be allocated to the first DVD player 20-1, the second DVD player 20-2 and the third DVD player 20-3, respectively.
However, if there is no logical address to be allocated to the fourth DVD player 20-4, unregistered logical address “15” may be allocated to the fourth DVD player 20-4, causing the fourth DVD player 20-4 to be inactivated.
In greater detail, logical addresses can support only three recording devices, four tuners, three playback devices and one audio system, and thus it is impossible to support a greater number of devices other than those listed above.
Additionally, a DVD receiver has both a playback function and an audio function, so both logical address “4” indicating the playback function and logical address “5” indicating the audio function may be allocated to the DVD receiver. In other words, two or more logical addresses are required even though a single device is physically provided. Consequently, a single logical address indicating the audio function is provided even when two or more DVD receivers are connected, which makes it impossible to use an audio function of a DVD receiver later connected.